What was that sound? And where did it come from?

The sense of hearing provides us effortless and accurate responses to these questions almost instantaneously, and around the clock – even, to some extent, when we are asleep. Incredible! But hearing impairment, hearing devices, and the listening environment itself can all compromise our ability to sense both what and where sounds are.

In the Spatial Hearing Lab at the University of Washington…

  • The Spatial Hearing Lab’s hemi-anechoic chamber, where we conduct the majority of our acoustic and perceptual measurements.
  • Cal the Calibration Manikin sporting a pair of earmuff-style hearing protectors. Cal has microphones instead of eardrums, enabling us to measure how sound changes as it travels from the source to the ears.
  • Every ear is different, and this impacts spatial hearing! 3-D scanning of individual ears (left) enables us to build 3-D ear models (center) that can also be printed (right) for later acoustic measurements.
  • PhD Student William Gray finishes up a project in the Fabrication Laboratory (aka, the FabLab). Next project: Cleaning up that desk.
  • PhD Student DJ Audet works to analyze recently collected data on a lab workstation using a freshly written MATLAB function. Coding ability is not required to join the lab, but is a likely outcome of time spent here!
  • The Spatial Hearing Lab! (summer 2022)

We combine acoustic, perceptual, and electrophysiological measurements to identify elements of audio/auditory signals and systems that influence our ability to locate and separate sources of sound. Several ongoing basic and applied research studies are designed to identify factors that underlie – and constrain – spatial hearing.

Identifying constraints on spatial hearing – and, toward this end, better understanding how spatial hearing happens when the auditory system is functioning as it should – will point to targets for modified, improved, and new hearing devices and technologies.

Please take a look around to learn more about who we are, what we do, and where we’re going. If you’ve still got questions, would like to get involved, or support our science, we would love to hear from you!